Out of Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille
By Russell Freedman and Kate Kiesler
4/5
()
About this ebook
A biography of the 19th century Frenchman who developed Braille. The book spans Braille's life from childhood through his days at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth and into his final years, when the alphabet he invented was finally gaining acceptance.
Russell Freedman
Russell Freedman (1929-2018) received the Newbery Medal for Lincoln: A Photobiography. He was the recipient of three Newbery Honors, a National Humanities Medal, the Sibert Medal, the Orbis Pictus Award, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, and was selected to give the 2006 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture. Mr. Freedman lived in New York City and traveled widely to research his books.
Read more from Russell Freedman
Lincoln: A Photobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Abraham Lincoln & Frederick Douglass: The Story Behind an American Friendship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Out of Darkness
Related ebooks
Consider the Octopus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSacagawea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Don't Laugh Challenge 9 Year Old Edition: The LOL Interactive Joke Book Contest Game for Boys and Girls Age 9 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Oregon Trail: Hit the Trail! (Two Books in One): The Race to Chimney Rock and Danger at the Haunted Gate Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Minecraft Favorites Pack Game Xbox, PS4, Tips, Cheats, Download, Unofficial Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLetters From Egypt To Plain Folks At Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThistle and Rose: A Story for Girls Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In the Reign of Terror: The Adventures of a Westminster Boy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Lion to Guard Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Planet, Chapters 1-5 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chased: Off the Itinerary, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFive Children and It Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhatever says mark: Knowing and Using Punctuation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sign of the Beaver: A Newbery Honor Award Winner Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Little Lord Fauntleroy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ronald Reagan: Young Leader Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Avalanche: Off the Itinerary, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFive Little Peppers at School Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecret Diary Unlocked: My Struggle to Like Me Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdara Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letters from Egypt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uncle Wiggily's Travels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen I was your age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hunt for Fang: Tree Street Kids (Book 2) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Spartan Twins Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarie Curie for Kids: Her Life and Scientific Discoveries, with 21 Activities and Experiments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bedtime Family Devotional: 90 Devotions to Help Your Family Love and Live for God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGracie the Lighthouse Cat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Children's Biography & Autobiography For You
Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki: and the Thousand Paper Cranes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dav Pilkey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sally Ride : The First American Woman in Space - Biography Book for Kids | Children's Biography Books Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBessie Coleman: Bold Pilot Who Gave Women Wings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLittle House on the Prairie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shel Silverstein Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Man Who Walked Between the Towers: (Caldecott Medal Winner) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hitler's Last Days: The Death of the Nazi Regime and the World's Most Notorious Dictator Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Albert Einstein and Relativity for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities and Thought Experiments Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Farewell to Manzanar Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Farmer Boy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reaching for the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJoan of Arc: The Girl Who Fought For France: Educational Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Many Faces of Josephine Baker: Dancer, Singer, Activist, Spy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMartin Luther King, Jr.: A Life of Fairness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hiding Place Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Escape from Alcatraz: The Mystery of the Three Men Who Escaped From The Rock Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sackler Family: The Empire of Pain: How the Sacklers Founded a Pharmaceuticals Dynasty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHidden Figures Young Readers' Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prairie Girl: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little House Book of Wisdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cross and the Switchblade: The True Story of One Man's Fearless Faith Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Out of Darkness
38 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Out of Darkness - Russell Freedman
Clarion Books
a Houghton Mifflin Company imprint
215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003
Text copyright © 1997 by Russell Freedman
Illustrations copyright © 1997 by Kate Kiesler
The illustrations for this book were executed in pencil.
All rights reserved.
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.
www.hmhco.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Freedman, Russell.
Out of darkness : the story of Louis Braille / by Russell Freedman ;
illustrated by Kate Kiesler.
p. cm.
Includes index.
Summary: A biography of the nineteenth-century Frenchman who, having been blinded himself at the age of three, went on to develop a system of raised dots on paper that enabled blind people to read and write.
ISBN 0-395-77516-7 PA ISBN 0-395-96888-7
1. Braille, Louis, 1809–1852—Juvenile literature. 2. Blind teachers—France—Biography—Juvenile literature. 3. Braille—Juvenile literature. [I. Braille, Louis, 1809–1852. 2. Blind. 3. Teachers. 4. Physically handicapped. 5. Braille.]
I. Kiesler, Kate, ill. II. Title.
HVI624.B65F74 1997
686.2'82'092—DC20
[B] 95-52353
CIP
AC
eISBN 978-0-547-34628-1
v2.0214
To Richard Billett
FOR THE GIFT OF FRIENDSHIP
Acknowledgments
The author is grateful to Leslie Rosen, Director of Information, American Foundation for the Blind, for helpful suggestions and advice. Many thanks also to Pierre Cassagne, custodian of the Louis Braille Birthplace Municipal Museum, and to the hospitable people of Coupvray.
[Image]The Dormitory
The dormitory was dark and still. Only one boy was still awake. He sat on the edge of his bed at a far corner of the room, holding a writing board and a sheet of thick paper on his lap. Working slowly, deliberately, he punched tiny holes across the page with the sharp point of a stylus. Every so often, he paused and ran his fingers across the raised dots on the opposite side of the paper. Then he continued working with his stylus.
He was interrupted by a husky whisper coming from the next bed. The same hushed conversation took place almost every night—the same questions, the same answers.
Louis? That you? Still punching dots?
Shh! Be quiet, Gabriel. It’s late. You’ll wake up everyone.
You’d better quit and get some rest, Louis. The director will be furious if you doze off in class again.
I know. I know. I’m almost finished now. Go back to sleep!
Louis Braille placed his paper and stylus on a shelf behind his bed. Extending his arm before him, he walked across the dormitory and stood before an open window. He was a thin, handsome boy with the strong features of his French ancestors. Tangled blond hair fell across his forehead. His eyes, tinged with purple, stared blankly from above prominent cheekbones.
Louis was a student at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris. For months now, he had been punching combinations of dots into sheets of paper. He was trying to work out a system of reading and writing for all those who cannot see.
As it was, blind people could not hope to read or write. The best method yet devised for them was almost useless. Isolated from much of human knowledge, unable to communicate by the written word, they could never share fully in life. It was a fact that